Conveyor belts are typically supported by support assemblies comprising rollers carried by a support structure. These support assemblies are positioned at spaced apart locations along the length of the belt.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional prior art idler wheel conveyor belt support assembly with an idler wheel frame 10 having a cross frame member 12 that is an inverted angle iron in this example. Brackets or feet 11, 13 at the respective opposed ends of the cross frame member 12 are used to secure the frame (e.g. using idler support mounting bolts) to a supporting rail or other conveyor frame supporting structure. In this example, bracket 11 has bolt receiving slots at the opposite ends of the bracket for receiving bolts to secure the bracket 11 to a conveyor frame portion 15. This example, also shows bracket 13 with bolt receiving slots at the opposite ends of the bracket for receiving bolts to secure the bracket 13 to a conveyor frame portion 17. The frame includes idler wheel or roller brackets, such as indicated at 16, 18 and 19 for supporting respective wheels or rollers 20, 22, 24. These wheels or rollers support a conveyer belt 26 for movement in direction 27 aligned with the longitudinal axis of a conveyor frame that supports the conveyor belt.
To adjust the position of the FIG. 1 idler wheel support assembly, typically one pounds on the upright idler wheel support (e.g. on support 16) and the frame at one end of the support with a hammer to angle the support (relative to the long axis of the conveyor) for belt tracking adjustment.
Increasingly, for safety reasons, companies will not allow this work to take place without first stopping the conveyor belt from moving and locking out the conveyor belt against further movement. If not stopped, a moving belt presents hazards to workers due to proximity of hammers used to pound on the frame and the moving conveyor belt. Stopping the belt movement during such adjustments results in inefficiencies. For example, this approach eliminates real-time feedback of the effect of any tracking adjustment. Until movement of the conveyor belt is restarted, one does not know if the pounding on the frame moved the end of the frame too much or not enough to solve tracking issues with the conveyor belt. Consequently, the starting and stopping of the belt may need to be repeated a number of times until the adjustments produce the desired result. This can result in excessive downtime of a conveyor, which is expensive, especially in the case of large conveyors that move large quantities of materials such as coal, ore, agriculture products and other items.
Therefore a need exists for an improved adjustable idler wheel supporting structure.